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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 26, 2011 - 09:44am PT
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Happy fifteen, Happie!
And happy eleven to another taco who might read this.
Beautiful day I'm going for a run!
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Linda Jarit
climber
ca
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Aug 26, 2011 - 11:53am PT
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Thanks Jay : )
Actually, two more days to 11....pretty sure I'll make it!!!
Congrats Happie on your 15 years - that's awesome! To you too bvb-you're not starting from square one, we all carry all of our experiences with us. Stay with it, it gets easier.
Blessings to all.
-L
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Aug 26, 2011 - 12:21pm PT
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BVB - You're the most important person on the thread today. 15 days IS FIFTEEN DAYS! Do NOT focus on the slips, keep your mind on today. You are clean alive. Today you have a chance. Take that chance and stay sober to see what miracles may be in the pipeline down the road. You're in my thoughts - my hand is in yours and hanging on today. FYI - I will be out west again this winter. and look forward to maybe getting together again with you!
Tradmanclimbs - Congratulations of 5 years! Yay for you!
And so far, so good, today. I am in the sewing room, making chalkbags. I feel good.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 26, 2011 - 12:22pm PT
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Well Linda, I knew I was close...
Spectacular run this morning, extended Turtle Rock Trail in Vedauwo, 5 fingers.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Aug 26, 2011 - 12:43pm PT
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Great stuff everyone.
Weege, dude I love your strange and beautiful writings.
But I gotta say that I think alone in the pointy stones might not be the best way to go.
Maybe in something warm and cozy, surrounded by the embrace of your children, proud to have helped raise such a fine man.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Aug 26, 2011 - 10:28pm PT
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Happie. hope you had a great day!
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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I’d just like to give big props to those of you who are battling with this demon, and pray and hope you stay the path.
It’s with a heavy heart I write about the loss of my youngest son’s godmother. She was a very good woman, who had a tough life she was the oldest of 13 siblings and acted as their mother due to her mothers ailments, was put in a concentration camp by US forces during WWII (to “protect” Alaska natives from the Japanese) her husband was tragically killed in a construction accident and she had to raise a teenage son alone, not to mention facing prejudice as an Alaskan native. Unfortunately the last few years she found her way back into the bottle.
Monday afternoon her son talked to her on the phone and could tell she’d been drinking. Early in the evening a neighbor stopped by and found her passed out and not breathing. She was revived by paramedics, rushed to the hospital and put on life support. We visited her Tuesday night and were told she had brain damage from the unknown time spent w/o breathing, but the extent of the damage was unknown. She was taken off life support yesterday and passed away last night.
That’s no way for anyone to end to their life, and no matter how alone you feel, or how much pain, there are others out there that care about you, even if they don’t show it.
I was pondering how we as a society can look from the outside and casually dismiss someone as just another drunk. I never thought of her that way, but I know I’ve been guilty of seeing our homeless population in that light. Everybody has a story, parents, possibly children, siblings, friends, they aren’t just a nameless faceless drunk. And you know what, those little old ladies, they need the same love, attention, comfort and companionship as our spouses, significant others and children. As a reminder, be compassionate and reach out to your family and friends that face this same battle. My wife and I are left feeling that if we’d been more involved in her life perhaps she wouldn’t have fallen off the wagon.
So don’t put off visiting with mom, day, grandma or grandpa while you have the chance.
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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"My wife and I are left feeling that if we’d been more involved in her life perhaps she wouldn’t have fallen off the wagon."
Please don't let that feeling take you down. As you probably know, people who have others involved in their lives in great depths still succumb to alcoholism, and people whose loved ones have thrown them out for good stay sober. This sort of thing just is not a factor as to who stays sober and who doesn't. Unfortunately it sometimes seems like a dice roll as to who makes it through a day sober and who picks up a drink. As the Big Book says, the disease is "cunning, baffling, and powerful."
I am sorry for your heartbreak.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Hoh man Tolman!Condolences to your family and all in her life.
Don't knock yourself out, nobody can do everything, nor should they try to.
That is a very good point you made and something important for all of us to take from this.
We/They're all somebody and somebody's!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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though ailment is often up-stirred,
sometimes the mental breezes must blow.
they must.
it is sad, though it is not sad.
some hearts float thru life.
some have to be drug through life.
the women of paul's acquantance
is a warrior spirit now, in my opinion.
she wrote her here-life story to the best of her ability.
wobbles, and bumps and glories and prides and shames and sorrows.
all these, in her script, glided up and down and across days,
with magnificent pen strokes.
i cast no ill-judgement upon her, and i wish her well in her next quest,
as she'll have borne into her the knowledges gained everywhere's.
live well. live ill.
life lives thru itself.
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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I quit drinking.
About 9 hours ago.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Love your people as much as you love your pets.
Be as nice to stray people as you would to a stray doggie..
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Asiajack
climber
Lots but mostly in Asia
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Sep 12, 2011 - 08:14pm PT
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Hankster and all--
Thanks for the amazing post. I was up on and off all night reading the entire thing, which was not too hard as I am insomniatic after coming off a long one. As before, and before, and before, ad infinitum.
I think I am serious this time. I have always climbed rocks to get to the rock top, but think I have finally reached the opposite. I cannot do it anymore. Hearing these stories, and many from people I've never met but have great respect for (previously on the rock but now in an entirely new light), is truly inspiring. I am not sure why I didn't find this thread earlier, but I am usually on rc or summit post or mountain project. I had heard some heavy hitters use supertopo but it took this thread to convince me :)
We spent the summer in the US which made things easier (though not without painful episodes!) for me due to the clean air, the driving (DUI is a strong disincentive..), and the proximity to nature. Just got back to the urban hellhole I have called home for many of the past years, was good for a week or so, decided for who knows what non-reason to go for post gym climbing beers, end up losing my beater bike and missing our planned excursion to some remote islands to put up some routes, getting in a single half-drunken gym session instead. The post about wasted years in Yosemite-- I could write volumes on this.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is OSAT (http://www.osat.org/); which seems like a very good idea to me. I am hoping to do something like this here as I grew up with AA (my Mom) and have resisted it despite the probable decades I have needed something like that (I recall smoky meetings, bad coffee, religious delerium, and more than anything shame at my Mom). I have always and increasingly tried to use climbing, or skiing, or mountain biking, as a way to temper my demons and when I do it right it works. If there is anyone out here who is interested in this, please let me know!!!
Wish me luck and Hankster and others-- please keep counting the days and months and years (when you posted that one I was truly moved as I have never gotten much beyond a month) and for Happiegirl decades. I think most climbers are competitive in their own ways by nature, and this post for me can be a YDS/V grade (or maybe NCCS as we are trying to go long!) and I will check it often, both in times of joy and in those of trouble. Keep up the beautiful ascent!!!
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Sep 12, 2011 - 08:33pm PT
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Kudos and a salute to those who make the effort to be sober. It is worth it, life is good.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Sep 12, 2011 - 10:02pm PT
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rockjox the universe continues to wobble and wallow and sway and stray
despite your six pack input.
i know cause i always get motion sick,
though im often in a motionless state.
it takes a lotto my nerve just to f*#kin blink.
dry eyes support know sorrow.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Sep 12, 2011 - 10:22pm PT
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Rox FOAD
Talking about our drinking is therapy for us. for whatever reason it seems to help.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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the weed harvest is in so i am back off the bottle.
too much vitamin depletion and seratonin uptake can be limited,
now pass the bong and don't give me a hard time about substitution,
ozzy has a new book out on the 11"th, called
"Trust Me, I am Doctor Ozzy"
Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy: Advice from Rock's Ultimate Survivor (shortened to "Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy") is the upcoming autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne,[1] vocalist of Black Sabbath and solo singer. It is the sequal to his 2010 release I Am Ozzy, the book chronicles his drug abuse and survival stories about 40 years of Ozzy's drug and alcohol abuse.[2][3][4] The book was co-written by Chris Ayres, because of Osbourne's dyslexia.
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Trusty Rusty
Social climber
Tahoe area
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Best to each of you on the path. . .to yourself. If you find it, the urge to medicate evaporates, if you don't, it never leaves. Bill and the Dr. got hold of something real, fact is most everyone could use a waltz through the steps over one malady or another. Good job, keep it simple and laugh, there's battles ahead for all.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Oct 10, 2011 - 03:30pm PT
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One year today on the extended sabbatical, no beer, no hootch.
It went by shockingly quick but then again, that's life after fifty.
Thanks to the Hankster and others who make this thread a helpful place to check in for a reminder and some inspiration.
Best wishes.
PB
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Vegasclimber
Trad climber
Las Vegas, NV.
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Oct 10, 2011 - 03:40pm PT
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Way to go Chief! Happy birthday!
Thanks for the inspiration. This has been one of my toughest weeks in all of my sobriety, and I needed that boost. Keep at it!
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